And now it started raining. It began gently, bringing the smell of the earth to the fore and refreshing my face, but within seconds it was a sheet. It attacked like hot needles, and the noise of it on the nearby roofs was deafening.

The rain wasn’t good for the shooter, either, as he was stuck in weeds in the rough, bogging him down. I was on the fairway and started gaining ground. I saw that another mound was coming up, and from its position I guessed what lay behind it.

As he reached the brow, I shouted out at him, and he turned back for an instant. With a surge, I carried myself over and onto his back, tumbling us both into the bunker. He grunted and waved his arms around as though he were drowning, and I realized that I’d have to be quick; he was a younger, stronger man, trained, with a gun. I wanted him alive, but it might not be possible. I swung wildly at his head, trying to get at his eyes or nose. I felt the cracking of bone and heard him scream, so I immediately brought the other hand round in an axe-chop to follow through, but he rolled to avoid it and then he was climbing on me. A fist slammed into the small of my back, sending a wave of agony up my spine, and I tried to get the momentum to push back into him, hoisting my elbows towards his face, but I merely scraped his chin and he was grabbing me around the neck and pulling me towards him. His breathing was fast and I could smell him, could smell his sweat and his desire to kill me. As I started to lose control of my throat muscles, I freed one hand and grabbed at his groin. His grip loosened for a moment and I managed to turn enough to bring my other hand into play, gouging at one of his eyes. My fingers came away wet, but I lost my footing and fell face first into the mud. It took me a while to get back up, but I couldn’t see anything and the nerves in my spine were stabbing at me. Where the hell was he? Everything was black, and the rain was hammering down. Suddenly I saw a glint of light. The moon? No, it was moving! I rolled away from it and heard a slashing sound behind me as I did. I leapt at the shape in the dark, lashing out with my feet and catching him hard in the stomach. He fell against the side of the bunker and I pinned him, locking my arms around his neck and squeezing. It was a thick neck: the neck of a KGB thug. Rage surged through me. Sasha had broken his promise.